Nostr notes by Jon Sullivan

What's got wing claws and can ferment leaves as well as a ...

2026-10-24T09:49:47Z

What's got wing claws and can ferment leaves as well as a sheep or cow? It's the hoatzin, a bird from the tropical Americas, the only living species in the family Opisthocomidae, and the national bird of Guyana.

The hoatzin is the bird for Day 24 of the Ink-Birdtober challenge, while the Inktober prompt is "Bake".

Here, then, are my instructions for how to bake a leaf *in a bird*.

Over 80% of a hoatzin's diet is leaves, and it has a special gut for fermenting them using microbes. The 1989 science paper that discovered this noted that "This is the first report of this digestive system outside the mammals, and opens new insights into the evolution of foregut fermentation."

#Birdtober #Inktober #birds #birdart
#sciart #birdsofmastodon #ink #drawing #mashup

It looks like some kind of leafhopper. ...

2026-10-21T09:53:44Z

In reply to nevent1q…dycl
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It looks like some kind of leafhopper.

https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/53237-Cicadellidae

One of the leafhoppers that eats tomatoes is the beet leafhopper, which yours might be. A clearer, closer photo would be needed.

https://extension.usu.edu/planthealth/ipm/notes_ag/veg-beet-leafhopper

If you want to escape for a while, I recommend joining Joseph ...

2026-10-19T07:49:18Z

If you want to escape for a while, I recommend joining Joseph Ricketts in this freshwater spring in the Ocklawaha river, Florida, looking for giant tadpoles. Joseph makes wonderful underwater natural history videos with his own camera work and he plays the music too. It’s the real thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amV1EHguZKI

#nature #freshwater #tadpoles #frogs

One of the ecology postgrads working with me at the moment, Dee ...

2026-10-16T02:54:56Z

One of the ecology postgrads working with me at the moment, Dee Patel, has spent this year doing lots of data curation work, and now stats analysis, on my 23-years of ongoing high frequency bird counts between Ōtautahi-Christchurch city and Lincoln town in Canterbury, NZ. That's where I repeatedly map and count birds while biking and running along 172 km of standard routes about the landscape.

This week Dee got the first preliminary results for all birds and one clear story is worth sharing: of the ~21 species of native and endemic birds that were seen often enough to be able to analyse a trend, *ALL* have increased in numbers over the past two decades.

All of them!!

Many have increased by large amounts, and on average, the NZ endemics are up more than the natives we share with other countries.

Over the same period, the introduced birds (mostly English birds) have mostly stayed about the same, with just a few declines (eg Muscovy duck are down a bit).

It's a strikingly different result from what's been reported in the media from some other parts of the world. I expect it's due to the big increases here in regeneration and planting of native vegetation and mammalian predator control, leading to a resurgence of native species in areas where they'd declined last century. We've also had the agricultural intensification and urban expansion and warming climate seen in most of the world, but those negative effects on birds seem to (so far) have been more than offset by the return of native vegetation and reduction in predators.

Dee's due to complete and submit her thesis early next year so there's still plenty of work to do before we get the details ironed out and figure out all the nuances in the story. Still, the overall result is looking really promising for the city's birds.

#birds #Ōtautahi #Christchurch #nz #ecology #LincolnUniversityNZ

It’s a little known fact (so little known that I may not deny ...

2026-10-15T08:48:13Z

It’s a little known fact (so little known that I may not deny having made it up) that the collective noun for Long-tailed Broadbills is a "Hooray".

Yes, it's another quick drawing, now Day 15 of the Ink-Birdtober challenge. Today's prompts are the Long-tailed Broadbill, from southeast Asia, and "Hooray".

#Birdtober #Inktober #birds #birdart
#sciart #birdsofmastodon #ink #drawing #mashup

Have you lost a shoe? I recommend hiring Bill from Shoe Rescue. ...

2026-10-11T09:15:08Z

Have you lost a shoe? I recommend hiring Bill from Shoe Rescue.

This is my drawing for Day 11 of the Ink-Birdtober challenge. Today's prompts are the Shoebill from Africa, and "Rescue".

I was reminded that the scientific name of shoebills is B. rex (*Balaeniceps rex*), which is terrific.

#Birdtober #Inktober #birds #birdart
#sciart #birdsofmastodon #ink #drawing #mashup #shoebill

Great paper. Thanks for sharing. I'm looking at their Figure ...

2026-10-10T08:43:14Z

In reply to nevent1q…x94c
_________________________

Great paper. Thanks for sharing. I'm looking at their Figure 3 and oh boy does it underscore how car addicted NZ, Australia, USA, and Canada are when compared with other countries.

We're the highest in car ownership and car use per capita, and, while we're moderate to high in bike ownership, we are near the bottom of the world rankings for using our bikes in transport.

There's so much room for improvement here (if we can acknowledge that we have a problem).

Chen, W., Carstensen, T.A., Wang, R. et al. Historical patterns and sustainability implications of worldwide bicycle ownership and use. Commun Earth Environ 3, 171 (2022). https://doi-org.ezproxy.lincoln.ac.nz/10.1038/s43247-022-00497-4

#biketooter

Here's my Day 4 of the Ink-Birdtober challenge. The 4 October ...

2026-10-04T09:03:58Z

Here's my Day 4 of the Ink-Birdtober challenge. The 4 October Birdtober prompt is the Gouldian Finch, from Northern Australia, and the Inktober prompt is Cacti.

There are no cacti native to Australia, so I've substituted the mungily, *Tecticornia verrucosa*, a weird Australian succulent salt-loving plant in the Amaranthaceae family.

I read on Wikipedia that early last century there were "hundreds of thousands" of Gouldian Finches in the wild, but now there are about 2,500 or fewer. 😔

#Birdtober #Inktober #birds #birdart
#sciart #birdsofmastodon #ink #drawing #mashup

Over on his YouTube channel EntoExplorer has made a terrific ...

2026-09-27T09:43:11Z

Over on his YouTube channel EntoExplorer has made a terrific video on four of Aotearoa-New Zealand's most unique and rare arthropods. There's a couple of weird beetles, some unusually alpine cicadas, and one of the most epically stylish green harvestmen, *Algidia viridata*.

The video highlights how much basic entomology research we've still got to do in NZ, plus how urgent some of it is. We need a lot more money for taxonomy, the foundation for all the natural history discoveries waiting to be made.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qk--L16GntU

#entomology #nz #conservation #EntoExplorer

Here's a wee post in memory of Gimli Pig, our guinea pig, who ...

2026-09-23T10:02:36Z

Here's a wee post in memory of Gimli Pig, our guinea pig, who passed away yesterday. My daughter and I caught Gimli and his brother Scruffles back in 2019 in the reserve by our house, where someone had abandoned them and the rest of the family. It took us a couple of days, with help from several neighours, to catch them all.

Gimli and Scruffles ended up living in our lounge, while their mother and another young one went to one of my daughter's school friends.

They were the first guinea pigs I'd had. In general, they're ridiculous animals, with a surprising amount of personality. Gimli would weep excitedly every morning when I peeled a carrot for my lunch, as he and our rabbits would get the peelings.

Gimli outlived his brother by a year and chummed up with our rabbit Firecracker after she outlived her sister.

He lived a long and contented life, and we appreciated his company.

#pets #GuineaPig #nz #IndoorPet

I looked up NZ's road statistics so far for 2026. 17,635 road ...

2026-09-14T10:36:35Z

In reply to nevent1q…wng4
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I looked up NZ's road statistics so far for 2026. 17,635 road injuries resulting in ACC claims. 221 people dead. All just this year.

Instead we're fretting about e-scooters being dangerous and needing more regulation. (Perhaps they do, but they're not the elephant in the room here.)

https://www.acc.co.nz/newsroom/media-resources/road-injury-statistics/

https://nzroads.tfwelch.com/dashboard/

#CarsKill #UrbanTransport #NZ

Here are two reminders from my bike commute today that, despite ...

2026-09-14T10:23:09Z

Here are two reminders from my bike commute today that, despite all the recent high profile hand wringing in the NZ media about e-scooters, these are not the big reason why the streets of our cities are dangerous.

Of course it's all the cars.

It's a choice that we design our cities like this.

#nz #roads #Transport #UrbanDesign

For fathers’ day this year my daughter got me a one month ...

2026-09-07T09:10:13Z

For fathers’ day this year my daughter got me a one month subscription to #Nebula. I’m now watching Not Just Bikes 🇳🇱 (npub1z7x…q5jf), with no ads! Nebula is a creator-owned video streaming platform and it looks like it’s got a wide range of good content.

I've been catching up on the nature meme thread on the ...

2026-09-05T10:19:25Z

I've been catching up on the nature meme thread on the iNaturalist Forum. There are lots of good ones, including this one.

https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/nature-inspired-memes/27300

#meme #nature #iNaturalist #owl #bee #Terminator

Here's a new long-horn beetle for our house and garden: the ...

2026-09-04T10:37:45Z

Here's a new long-horn beetle for our house and garden: the NZ endemic *Eburida quadriguttata*.

This one flew into our house yesterday evening and landed next to my computer, so I photographed it. I've been recording all the species in our garden for over 15 years and this is the first time I've seen this species.

It's also the 14th observation of this species from the Christchurch District on #iNaturalist (and those are all the observations from here on #GBIF ).

I'm not sure why it is seen so infrequently. I read that their larvae have been reared from a wide range of native plants, from Clematis and bush lawyer vines to beech and rātā trees. The grubs take two years to develop and emerge from late August, so this one's right on time.

Welcome to our home.

https://www.inaturalist.nz/observations/397135761

#insects #beetles #Coleoptera #nz #iNaturalistNZ #iNaturalist #Cerambycidae

One of my PhD students, Will Frost (who is fast becoming one of ...

2026-09-02T03:14:16Z

One of my PhD students, Will Frost (who is fast becoming one of NZ's Lepidoptera experts) has just published the first of his thesis chapters, in the journal Austral Entomology. It looks at mōkarakara, the NZ magpie moth, *Nyctemera annulata*, and the hybridisation with its Australian relative, *Nyctemera amicus*.

As the world warms, northern NZ keeps filling up with more Australian insects, and many of those are capable of hybridising with their NZ relatives. Most of the *Nyctemera* in Northland and Auckland are now the Australian *Nyctemera amicus* and its hybrids, while pure *Nyctemera annulata* populations remain through the lower South Island (for now).

In the paper, Will uses a combination of molecular and morphological approaches to describe the features of the two species and their hybrids. He found several reliable morphological differences between the species, plus shows that hybrids typically contain a mix of these characteristics. This can help us to track the spread of these hybrids southwards using people's photos of the moths on iNaturalist.

As we keep warming the world, NZ's cool-world adapted endemic insects are increasingly struggling against the wave of Australian immigrants, especially in northern and lowland NZ. Coming up soon will be Will's chapter showing high parasitism rates of *Nyctemera annulata* by two recently arrived Australian parasitoid wasps.

Frost, W.T., Vink, C.J., Sullivan, J.J. 2026. Evidence for Hybridisation between the New Zealand Magpie Moth *Nyctemera annulata* (Boisduval, 1832) (Lepidoptera: Erebidae) and its Australian sister taxon *Nyctemera amicus* (White, 1841). Austral Entomology; 65:e70109. https://doi.org/10.1111/aen.70109

#entomology #insects #mothodon #moths #science #Lepidoptera #nz #Australia #Nyctemera #Erebidae

The curator of our university Entomology museum, John Marris, ...

2026-09-01T05:39:15Z

The curator of our university Entomology museum, John Marris, excitedly popped into my office earlier today to share this neat new study on ant-associated beetles, by
Yu-Cheng Feng and colleagues.

These small beetles live inside ant nests. Not only have they evolved cunning ways to co-exist with the ants, but they have also evolved *handles* to help the ants carry them about. The phyologeny of the subfamily Chlamydopsinae suggests that these beetles have independently evolved ant handles several times.

"Our findings provide direct evidence that the characteristic surface relief of chlamydopsines, at least partly or in some cases, serves as a mechanical adaptation for ant‑mediated transport"

Insect Systematics and Diversity, Volume 10, Issue 5, 2026
https://doi.org/10.1093/isd/ixag034

#entomology #ants #beetles #symbiosis #insects #NaturalHistory #EvolutionaryBiology

Yes. It’s also sad to think that the local councils had built a ...

2026-08-29T21:55:41Z

In reply to nevent1q…u0tv
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Yes. It’s also sad to think that the local councils had built a plan during the last government's term to connect up these towns with light rail connected to hubs with frequent bus services.

“The design phase was set to begin later in 2024, if it gets government approval”

Then NZ went backwards to cars, cars, cars again.

https://www.odt.co.nz/canterbury/christchurch/canterbury-councils-team-up-to-secure-rapid-public-transport-qvjy0vvi

It’s disappointing to read that NZ’s fastest growing town, ...

2026-08-29T21:26:59Z

It’s disappointing to read that NZ’s fastest growing town, Rolleston, was initially designed in the 1970s to be a much nicer place:

“Aware of the social and environmental pitfalls of car dependency, the plans encouraged walking, cycling and public transport - potentially capitalising on Rolleston's origins as a railway junction. The plans also emphasised the importance of creating a wide range of industry and employment in the town.”

Instead, those plans were all scrapped by Muldoon’s National government and we got the sprawling, car-infested mess that Rolleston is now, where over half the residents drive to Christchurch to work each day.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/community/1170542/nz-s-fastest-growing-town-was-once-the-future-of-urban-planning-what-happened

#NZ #Rolleston #UrbanPlanning

Here’s what pīpipi look like. I took this photo last year up ...

2026-08-29T09:57:37Z

In reply to nevent1q…fuee
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Here’s what pīpipi look like. I took this photo last year up at the Boyle in the North Canterbury Southern Alps. They’re cute brown birds that travel in groups and make distinctive raspy calls and songs.

https://flic.kr/p/2rkKTvc

#mz #birds

Pīpipi!! Today I did my monthly 63 km Port Hills bike loop, from ...

2026-08-29T09:55:54Z

Pīpipi!!

Today I did my monthly 63 km Port Hills bike loop, from Christchurch city NZ out via the hills to Lincoln and back by the farmland. I’ve been riding this monthly since July 2019, counting and mapping birds (and other species) as I go. Today, for the first time on this route, I heard a small flock of about four pīpipi (NZ brown creepers), in the shrubs on Gebbes Pass.

These NZ endemic birds (in a NZ endemic genus and family) are found deeper into Banks Peninsula but have been thought to be absent from the Port Hills, so much so that the Christchurch City Council has started a project to reintroduce them to the hills.

It looks like they’re already on their way on their own.

https://www.inaturalist.nz/observations/395417894

#birds #nz #Mohoua

I just watched New Scientist’s excellent, and frightening, new ...

2026-08-27T08:33:55Z

I just watched New Scientist’s excellent, and frightening, new explainer video about the AMOC ocean current that moves heat through the Atlantic. It’s why we may be dangerously close to locking in colossal, irreversible changes to the planets climate, which could happen rapidly over just a couple of decades and then change the planet’s climate for many centuries.

“Dozens of metres” of sea level rise is mentioned as a real possibility over the coming centuries, should AMOC falter and cause the release of a lot of the carbon we burned that’s so far been soaked into the oceans.

It felt eerily like I could be watching a slow-motion global-scale version of the start of today’s awful, catastrophic flood in Nepal and Tibet.

Every politician that’s been sabotaging efforts to decarbonise our economies should watch this video. Every voter should be thinking about this at elections.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Auf0KdZ6S0

#ClimateAction #ClimateChange #NewScientist

I photographed this wee fly on the campus of ...

2026-08-24T09:24:31Z

I photographed this wee fly on the campus of #LincolnUniversityNZ, during a student-led campus BioBlitz this month.

Otago Museum fly expert Steve Kerr has confirmed on iNaturalist today that it's the endemic species, *Melanagromyza senecionella.* This makes it the first record of this species in the Canterbury region, at least online on #GBIF and #iNaturalist, and the 34th observation in NZ online.

It's one of several new species for campus that students and staff found during the BioBlitz. Natural history discoveries can be made everywhere in NZ.

https://www.inaturalist.nz/observations/393744871

#Diptera #insects #entomology #CitizenScience #flies

Here’s Arlo Guthrie’s classic “AIice’s Restaurant” from ...

2026-08-14T07:41:12Z

Here’s Arlo Guthrie’s classic “AIice’s Restaurant” from 1967.

My Dad introduced me to this one. It’s more a humorous anti-war song but, also, “You can get anything you want at Alice's restaurant.”

#ServingPeople
#JukeBoxFridayNight
#ArloGuthrie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaKIX6oaSLs

On Thursday I watched this tarāpunga (NZ Red-billed Gull) on the ...

2026-08-08T07:20:30Z

On Thursday I watched this tarāpunga (NZ Red-billed Gull) on the edge of the ocean repeatedly doing a slow shuffle dance in the wet sand. It would shuffle its feet to make a wet puddle then stop and eat whatever little invertebrates rose to the surface. Then it would do its dance steps again.

Definitely full marks for style and smarts.

https://flic.kr/p/2stT4kF

https://www.inaturalist.nz/observations/389180275

#birds #seagull #nz #beach #Chroicocephalus #gulls #AnimalBehaviour

Hey babe, would you like me to fluff myself up and bob up and ...

2026-08-07T23:45:34Z

Hey babe, would you like me to fluff myself up and bob up and down for you?

I saw this pair of kererū in the Christchurch Botanic Gardens yesterday. It looks like love is in the air.

https://www.inaturalist.nz/observations/389182421

#birds #NZ #Ōtautahi #Christchurch #kererū #AnimalBehaviour #Display

Neat! I’m reminded of how the Costa Rican mouse *Liomys ...

2026-07-16T20:06:13Z

In reply to nevent1q…c8j9
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Neat! I’m reminded of how the Costa Rican mouse *Liomys salvini* will gather hard to eat seeds and germinate them in their tunnels before eating them.

“ Enterolobium cyclocarpum seeds are a much better diet when germinated than when hard (dormant), and the mice cut the hard seed coat (Fig. 7) and leave the seeds on moist soil in their tunnels to germinate (Fig. 7) before eating them. They are, in effect, making bean sprouts.”

https://www.acguanacaste.ac.cr/galerie/fotos/landschaften-der-acg/9-acg-general/detail/106-area-de-conservacion-guanacaste?tmpl=component

#rodent #mouse #ecology #NaturalHistory

Even velvet worm feet are next-level. Such cool critters. ...

2026-07-11T22:34:12Z

In reply to nevent1q…7xmx
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Even velvet worm feet are next-level. Such cool critters.

Me too! It looks like the octopus is wearing sunglasses. Cool.

2026-07-05T01:33:39Z

In reply to nevent1q…8x6d
_________________________

Me too! It looks like the octopus is wearing sunglasses. Cool.

I just uploaded my NZ garden bird survey for the year. ...

2026-07-04T23:08:09Z

I just uploaded my NZ garden bird survey for the year. Today's the last day to take part. You just need to spend an hour in your garden and, to quote the survey website,

> Look for birds for ONE hour in your survey area.
> For each species record the HIGHEST number seen (or heard) at one time.

My tally here in Ōtautahi is 6 korimako, 5 blackbirds, 1 piwakawaka, 1 karoro (it flew by), 1 kererū, 1 magpie, 50 silvereyes (at least, they're hard to count at our sugar water feeders), 3 house sparrows, 3 starlings, 3 black shags (flew by).

Here's a female blackbird enjoying our water bath during my survey.

https://gardenbirdsurvey.nz/

#birds #NZGardenBirdSurvey #nz #ecologicalMonitoring

Here's Midnight Oil live in 2018 performing "Power and ...

2026-07-03T07:33:25Z

Here's Midnight Oil live in 2018 performing "Power and Passion"

"People, wasting away in paradise
Going backward, once in a while
Taking your time, give it a try
What do you believe, what do you believe
What do you believe is true"

"It's better to die on your feet than to live on your knees"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-_s2UzdSek

#PowerPlay #JukeBoxFridayNight #MidnightOil

It looks like the worst has finally happened. The deadly strain ...

2026-06-19T21:44:32Z

It looks like the worst has finally happened. The deadly strain of H1N5 bird flu has arrived in Australasia, with a migratory brown skua in Western Australia testing positive (it’s since died). If this bird flu establishes in Australia, it is expected to then make the jump across the Tasman to NZ.

This is the bird flu strain that has caused mass die-offs of many bird and marine mammal species as it’s spread across the world.

The second link below is the fact sheet from NZ Ministry for Primary Industries on what we should be doing. The first step is to be vigilant and keep a look out for sick and dead birds and seals. In preparation for the arrival of H5N1, the Department of Conservation has been immunising some of our most threatened birds, like kakapō.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/jun/19/australia-bird-flu-deadly-h5n1-first-suspected-case-wa

https://www.mpi.govt.nz/biosecurity-in-nz/dont-let-bird-flu-take-flight

#BirdFlu #H5N1 #Australia #NZ #biosecurity

We've got a female korimako (NZ bellbird) back on the Lincoln ...

2026-06-09T10:15:31Z

We've got a female korimako (NZ bellbird) back on the Lincoln University campus!

There was great excitement last year (in the right circles) when student William Harland saw the first female korimako ever on campus. Until then it had just been wandering males that had made it from the Port Hills to the university. William spotted her just twice last year.

The good news is that I saw a female today! And, she was foraging with a male, and they'd found the university's oldest (and very small) patch of native trees, where some trees were flowering.

Hopefully the campus will one day be a suitable enough habitat for pairs to stay over the Spring and breed.

https://www.inaturalist.nz/observations/369978646

https://www.inaturalist.nz/observations?place_id=67596&subview=map&taxon_id=12612&verifiable=any&term_id=9&term_value_id=10

#LincolnUniversityNZ #bellbird #birds #nz

As the sun was setting, on my bike commute home this evening, ...

2026-06-04T09:00:05Z

As the sun was setting, on my bike commute home this evening, there were these striking, converging rays in the eastern sky. I read that they're called anti-crepuscular rays.

They were like search lights in the sky.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/55312508492/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anticrepuscular_rays

#weather #sunset #nz #photography #AntiCrepuscularRays

I just finished reading an interesting article in #QuantaMagazine ...

2026-05-24T09:34:16Z

I just finished reading an interesting article in #QuantaMagazine about recent research on bird eyes. Unlike our inferior mammal eyes, bird eyes lack the network of blood vessels covering the retina. When an optometrist shines a bright light in our eyes, we see a network of blood vessels that block parts of our vision. Sleight of hand from our brain removes this from our perception, but it permanently limits what we see.

Birds retinas don’t do this at all, and it turns out that this is made possible by using a form of glucose-driven metabolism that doesn’t require oxygen. That’s crazy for such an energy intensive tissue. No other species alive today do this, and it likely evolved in dinosaurs.

It’s wild stuff.

https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-the-bird-eye-was-pushed-to-an-evolutionary-extreme-20260513/

#birds #evolution #eyes #biology

Participating cities in the City Nature Challenge often run fun ...

2026-04-23T08:21:05Z

In reply to nevent1q…u2yk
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Participating cities in the City Nature Challenge often run fun free public events. That’s the case where I am in Ōtautahi-Christchurch, New Zealand. See the link below for the list of all our events. (I’m leading a nature walk on Sunday from the Sign of the Takahe in the city’s Port Hills down to the Botanic Gardens.)

To find out what’s happening in your city, search for your city’s City Nature Challenge project page on #iNaturalist

https://ccc.govt.nz/news-and-events/whats-on/programme/146

https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=City+nature+challenge

#CNC2026

The global City Nature Challenge starts at midnight on 23 April, ...

2026-04-23T08:16:19Z

The global City Nature Challenge starts at midnight on 23 April, which here in New Zealand is now less than four hours away.

If you’re new to the City Nature Challenge, it’s four days of observing nature, in hundreds of cities around the world. That’s followed by two weeks of uploading photos and identifying species on #iNaturalist.

It’s a great way to get together with others and have some fun exploring your city and seeing what wild species you can find.

https://www.inaturalist.nz/projects/city-nature-challenge-2026

https://www.inaturalist.nz/projects/city-nature-challenge-2026-aotearoa-new-zealand

#CityNatureChallenge #CNC2026

Of the flies I saw today, this one is my favourite. It's the ...

2026-04-11T06:40:54Z

Of the flies I saw today, this one is my favourite. It's the ngaro tara or three-lined Hover Fly (*Helophilus seelandicus*), a New Zealand endemic species.

I like the sleek colour pattern. It would not look out of place on a coverable sports car.

While the adult is sleek, the larva is a rat-tailed maggot with a long snorkle out its rear end that allows it to eat decomposing matter in stagnant water.

I saw this while on my weekly biodiversity run this afternoon through Ōtautahi-Christchurch city, NZ.

https://www.inaturalist.nz/observations/348889144

#diptera #flies #entomology #nz #Syrphidae #Ōtautahi #Christchurch #iNaturalist

Mark Avery also has a good summary of this new bird feeder ...

2026-04-10T08:39:25Z

In reply to nevent1q…tclh
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Mark Avery also has a good summary of this new bird feeder advice.

https://markavery.info/2026/04/10/garden-bird-feeding-new-rspb-advice/

There's a new fly in town. While out for a run yesterday, in ...

2026-04-06T22:20:00Z

There's a new fly in town.

While out for a run yesterday, in Ōtautahi-Christchurch, NZ, I noticed this unusual orange-headed black fly. I uploaded my photos to #iNaturalist when I got home and learned that it's the Australian Soldier Fly, *Inopus rubriceps*. This looks to be the first record of it anywhere in the South Island south of Nelson.

The species is a minor pasture pest and is well-established in NZ's North Island, where it was first seen in 1944.

As the world warms, NZ continues to fill with Australian insects. They first establish in the North Island then spread southwards. The pattern is repeating over and over. In this case, the two Australian parasitoid wasps (Neurogalesus spp.) that feed on *Inopus rubriceps* have also already established in the North Island.

*Inopus rubriceps* is a distinctive fly, especially the female which has the orange head (the male is all black). Keep an eye out and you might find some more of them.

https://www.inaturalist.nz/observations/347771177

#Diptera #entomology #iNaturalistNZ #invasionBiology #insects #nz #Christchurch #fly

It's that time again in Ōtautahi-Christchurch, NZ, when the ...

2026-04-05T22:33:50Z

It's that time again in Ōtautahi-Christchurch, NZ, when the fruit on the te kouka cabbage trees are at peak ripeness. That brings in the kererū to parts of the city.

Here are some of my photos of kererū eating te kouka fruit in the city from this long weekend. It includes what I think is the first time I've seen a kererū on Rose Street (that's on one of my fortnightly survey routes, which I've run since 2008).

https://www.inaturalist.nz/observations/347375376

#kererū #Ōtautahi #Christchurch #nz #birds #iNaturalistNZ #frugivory #UrbanEcology #nature

Interestingly, Forsythia flowers in New Zealand around Easter ...

2026-04-02T09:01:31Z

In reply to nevent1q…7ehc
_________________________

Interestingly, Forsythia flowers in New Zealand around Easter too, on the other end of the world. Down here Forsythia has a peak burst of flowering in Spring, before it leafs out, and then often has another smaller burst of flowering later in Autumn around Easter.

(It's planted here in gardens, and only sparingly wild, so far.)

Here are a couple of Forsythia I recently photographed flowering in gardens of Christchurch city, NZ.

https://www.inaturalist.nz/observations/346745745
https://www.inaturalist.nz/observations/346745747

#botany #flowers

Q+A's Jack Tame has a good interview with Rewiring ...

2026-04-02T07:24:09Z

Q+A's Jack Tame has a good interview with Rewiring Aotearoa’s Mike Casey on the need to quickly electrify NZ’s machines to run on New Zealand-made energy and ramp up rooftop solar. I like the way he pitches this as the clearly obvious and sensible solution, which it clearly and obviously is.

https://www.1news.co.nz/2026/03/29/fuel-price-blowouts-push-nz-towards-electrification-advocate/

#TVNZ #RenewableEnergy #NZ #JackTane

I can get lost in moths. They're one of nature's art ...

2026-03-12T10:02:47Z

I can get lost in moths. They're one of nature's art galleries.

Here's a close-up of the wings of NZ's Greater Alpine Grey (Ichneutica virescens).

You can zoom into the full-resolution version on Flickr at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/55143236921/

See the whole moth on iNaturalist NZ at: https://www.inaturalist.nz/observations/342554964

#mothodon #Lepidoptera #moths #nz #photography #entomology

Moth? Moth! Here's the NZ endemic moth, the appropriately ...

2026-03-05T08:16:51Z

Moth? Moth!

Here's the NZ endemic moth, the appropriately named Exquisite Carpet, *Asaphodes adonis*, which I just uploaded to #iNaturalist. It's known only from NZ's South Island.

It's always a treat to find these.

https://inaturalist.nz/observations/341348871

#mothodon #moths #Lepidoptera #nz #entomology

Here's a triangle that loomed in the sky as it approached ...

2026-03-02T08:48:12Z

Here's a triangle that loomed in the sky as it approached Ōtautahi-Christchurch city, NZ, yesterday morning.

Soon afterwards the blustery rainy cool weather arrived and stuck around for the next 24 hours.

https://flic.kr/p/2rZ9p6t

#photography #weather #nz #triangle #clouds

I gave one of my first-year university lectures today, on ...

2026-02-23T23:54:21Z

I gave one of my first-year university lectures today, on biodiversity and extinction rates, in which I mention the recent population growth of the Earth's most abundant large animal species ever: us.

I still remain completely gobsmacked by the magnitude of the world's recent human population growth.

8.27 billion: today's population, according to worldometers.info.

7.2 billion: in 2015 when I started teaching the course.

6.8 billion: in 2008 when my daughter was born.

3.8 billion: in 1971 when I was born.

2.3 billion: in 1946 when my parents were born.

1.9 billion: in 1923 when my Dad’s Dad was born.

So 1.9 billion to 8.2 billion in just over a century!

I worry about whether we can sustain this many people on the planet long-term while retaining and restoring a thriving wild biosphere that supports us.

Some of us are going to have to learn to use a lot less energy and resources.

#SoManyPeople #HumanPopulation

I like how the people of Ōtautahi-Christchurch have the habit of ...

2026-02-22T09:24:14Z

I like how the people of Ōtautahi-Christchurch have the habit of quietly placing flowers in the city's road cones to commemorate the people that died in the 2011 earthquake.

It is worth remembering how everyone in the city came together to help each other out after the quakes. That was the heart of the city right there.

#Ōtautahi #Christchurch #nz #earthquake #commemoration

Today I was up in the Port Hills of Ōtautahi-Christchurch, NZ, ...

2026-02-22T06:24:57Z

Today I was up in the Port Hills of Ōtautahi-Christchurch, NZ, swapping out some bird audio recorders.

Here are the views.

It is an excellent backyard for a city!

#Ōtautahi #Christchurch #NZ #scenery

My full-sized photos are on #Flickr:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/55108241217/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/55108221277/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/55109107111/

If you have to put up a sign asking cyclists to please use your ...

2026-02-20T09:48:09Z

If you have to put up a sign asking cyclists to please use your shared pedestrian path, you've designed it wrong.

As a commuter cyclist, I want to get from point A to point B as fast as I can, without dying. Just like a car driver.

When given the option of riding on the road verge, or weaving in and out of people walking their dogs with headphones on and children walking to school and friends walking along chatting to each other, and giving way to cars at every little side road, then I choose the road verge. So do people on road bikes zipping past me at >30 km/hr.

I really like the separated cycleways that Christchurch city has built. They're safe and fast and well used.

I worry about the recent proliferation instead of "shared paths" in new road developments which combine cyclists with pedestrians and discourage bikes from being on the road at all.

Shared paths are useful for children on bikes, if we teach them how to ride around pedestrians, but they're impractical for an adult cyclist trying to travel 20–30 km/hr.

Please, let's keep investing in separated cycleways for cycle commuters. That's what will get more commuters out of cars, not shared paths.

#cycleways #bikeTooter #nz #biking

It struck me during Carl's talk that massive, general LLMs ...

2026-02-13T09:17:06Z

In reply to nevent1q…jzjv
_________________________

It struck me during Carl's talk that massive, general LLMs are yet another technology that, through the competitive haste of capitalism, we’ve unleashed globally without considering all of the likely effects on things we value (like social cohesion, functional democracies, and a healthy biosphere). As usual, we’ll now live through all these consequences and will scramble to undo the worst of the damage.

We’ve done the same with chlorofluorocarbons, DDT, acid rain, whaling, forever chemicals, cars,... It’s what we do, but every new global-scale technology is a gamble that it won’t irrevocably damage civilisation and the biosphere. Eventually we’re going to lose that gamble.

To drive a large, global high-tech civilisation for thousands of years, we have to learn to be *much* more restrained and future smart. Are we capable of that?

#SustainableFuture #UnintendedConsequences #LLM

I went to a fantastic seminar today at the University of ...

2026-02-13T09:14:45Z

I went to a fantastic seminar today at the University of Canterbury by Carl Bergstrom ([@ct_bergstrom](https://fediscience.org/@ct_bergstrom )), titled “Information Foraging in a Social Media World.” Carl has been applying his knowledge of how information flows through ecological and evolutionary systems to better understand our digital information networks.

He views humans as fundamentally information foragers, and he compared the massive digital information network we’ve built to the excess of high calorie sweet and fatty foods. Neither are necessarily good for us in excess.

Information used to be hard to find and we spent a lot of our time processing it. Now we live with a hyper-abundance of information and we spend most of our time filtering information instead of processing it. Carl hinted that this ratio of filtering to processing differs between the generations, something that teachers need to consider.

He ended with LLMs, describing LLMs as fundamentally depersonalising, as they insert themselves between people in our digital information networks. He is also concerned about how easily LLMs can be used at scale to manipulate people, and communities of people, for commercial and political purposes.

In universities he sees the need for a radically trans-disciplinary crisis discipline focused on information. We quickly need to better understand, and anticipate, all the social changes that are happening.

It’s a lot to think about.

One of the most notable visitors to my moth light this past week ...

2026-02-08T03:10:27Z

In reply to nevent1q…y82m
_________________________

One of the most notable visitors to my moth light this past week turns out to not be a moth at all but instead is this kind of house fly. I've not seen the species before.

Steve Kerr, volunteer fly expert from Otago Museum, identified it on iNaturalist as a known but still undescribed species. Entomologist Rod Macfarlane called it "Genus A sp.1" and entomologist Stephen Thorpe called it "Muscidae ST1". (Both Rod and Stephen are no longer with us.)

Steve notes that the species has been "seen only a few times in the past ten years".

It's indicative of NZ's minimal investment in invertebrate taxonomy that a species like this can go for several decades without a professional having time to give it a scientific name. Volunteers can add a lot of natural history knowledge on citizen science platforms like iNaturalist but we rely on the foundation of species names that is built and maintained by professional taxonomists.

https://inaturalist.nz/observations/337641181

#flies #Diptera #nz #taxononmy #UndescribedSpecies #entomology

I'm up to 12 new moth species for our garden this year, ...

2026-02-08T01:52:25Z

In reply to nevent1q…rchz
_________________________

I'm up to 12 new moth species for our garden this year, thanks to the NZ moth identifiers on iNaturalist and the handy Compare tool on iNat. The Compare tool shows me what species are different between this year and my past years' mothing in my garden. It's handy.

Here are photos of four more of my newbies. These are more greys and browns. All are NZ endemic species.

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/compare?s=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%3D

#iNaturalistNZ #iNaturalist #moths #Mothodon #Ōtautahi #Christchurch #nz

Each season I do four nights of moth lighting in my garden in ...

2026-02-04T06:08:48Z

Each season I do four nights of moth lighting in my garden in suburban Ōtautahi-Christchurch, NZ. My summer moth lighting this year started on Saturday. I photograph every moth that settles at my light and today I've been uploading my photos to #iNaturalist.

I've been doing this consistently each autumn since 2015 and every season each year since (at least) 2021. You might think I would have found all the moth species that visit my garden, but no.

So far I've finished uploading Saturday's moth photos and have found six new species to our garden. Here are four of them.

There's the endemic moth *Gymnobathra hamatella*:
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/337290749

There's the "nationally vulnerable" endemic species *Gadira leucophthalma*:
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/337263605

There's the endemic Clematis triangle *Deana hybreasalis*:
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/337285888

Also, less ideal, there's the introduced Case-bearing Clothes Moth *Tinea pellionella*:
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/337285916

#mothodon #moths #Lepidoptera #Ōtautahi #Christchurch #NZ #insects #EcologicalMonitoring

And, at the opposite extreme of moths from a huge and fluffy gum ...

2026-02-01T07:40:40Z

In reply to nevent1q…zy8h
_________________________

And, at the opposite extreme of moths from a huge and fluffy gum emperor moth, there was this minute brown Batrachedra moth.

Whereas the gum emperor moth is generally cheery, the Batrachedra looks grumpy. 😄

I saw one at my home moth light in January last year, and it's back again this year.

https://inaturalist.nz/observations/336922795

#mothodon #moths #Christchurch #Ōtautahi #NZ #entomology #insects

Check out this big gum emperor moth that visited my moth light at ...

2026-02-01T07:26:48Z

Check out this big gum emperor moth that visited my moth light at home last night, in Ōtautahi-Christchurch, NZ.

I first thought there was a bird flapping in the bushes, before it appeared. This one was pinker than most I've seen, and it happily clambered about on its big fluffy feet.

They're more like Pokémon than real moths.

https://inaturalist.nz/observations/336921630

#moths #mothodon #Christchurch #NZ #Ōtautahi #insects #entomology

As much as I loathe LLM "AI" built from hoards of stolen ...

2026-01-31T09:26:06Z

As much as I loathe LLM "AI" built from hoards of stolen data, machine learning "AI" has become terrifically useful.

This past week I had 10 audio recorders set out in the forest and nearby grassland, all recording non-stop from Monday afternoon to Friday morning. That was on our recent university field ecology field trip.

Today I downloaded all the files to a hard drive (156 GB of data) and then I set my little M1 Macbook Air to work, using the offline desktop BirdNet app to identify all of the birds in the recordings.

It took most of the day, and now I have a 42,284 row spreadsheet of birds detected.

It really feels like magic.

Here's a quick sorted lists of all the bird detections with species IDs with a confidence score >0.9.

Together with the students in the course, we'll later compare how birds have changed since we started doing this in 2020, and how the birds in the grassland differ from the forest.

#birds #BirdNet #ecology #nz #MachineLearning

I just saw seven male korimako (NZ bellbirds) at our sugar ...

2026-01-24T21:50:47Z

I just saw *seven* male korimako (NZ bellbirds) at our sugar water feeder all *at the same time*. That might be a house record.

Here are two of them.

Plus, there was a juvenile being fed by its mother nearby.

That's one up-side of grey stormy weather. It brings in the birds to our garden feeders.

#birds #nz #sugarWaterFeeder #Christchurch

Here are four of the many things I found taking my camera for a ...

2026-01-24T09:49:28Z

Here are four of the many things I found taking my camera for a run this afternoon in Ōtautahi-Christchurch city, NZ.

Curious European greenfinches on a wire (one twisted around to look at me): https://inaturalist.nz/observations/335927660

A late instar caterpillar of an Australian yellow admiral butterfly that I found feeding on a European dwarf nettle: https://inaturalist.nz/observations/335927656

A mallard duck swimming on the Heathcote River with the *best* reflections (I took a lot more photos of the swirling patterns on the silver water): https://inaturalist.nz/observations/335927802

A mushroom of what I think is the native *Pluteus readiarum*, growing on the dead stump of a planted ribbonwood tree: https://inaturalist.nz/observations/335927658

#nature #WildCounts #Ōtautahi #Christchurch #NZ

Yesterday I was at The Art of Banksy exhibition in central ...

2026-01-11T04:50:21Z

Yesterday I was at The Art of Banksy exhibition in central Christchurch, NZ, "the world's largest exhibition of Banksy art". It was pretty great. There were photos and prints of the stencilled images that Banksy has sprayed on walls about the world, with lots of cutting, insightful commentary on how messed up our world is.

Then, today, I was out on the streets of Christchurch and I saw a message someone had written in chalk on the footpath (sidewalk): "I LOVE BEANS".

Fair enough. For all of society's faults, beans are good.

🙂

#graffiti #art #BANKSY #nz #tepaechristchurch

This is a great article. As someone who teaches at a university, ...

2026-01-08T05:14:42Z

In reply to nevent1q…n7x0
_________________________

This is a great article.

As someone who teaches at a university, there's a lot to mull over here. I like the concept that writing can be alchemical, when done right. I get that. It's like magic when things connect in unexpected ways and new ideas emerge.

I'm also digesting your suggestion that by making writing assignments simple, prescriptive and easy to mark, we're training students to write like LLMs. Hmm. I'll think about how to do better.

Watchful eyes! I took this photo at the Christchurch Botanic ...

2026-01-04T05:19:46Z

Watchful eyes!

I took this photo at the Christchurch Botanic Gardens on Friday. I just looked closely enough to realise that only one of the four ducks wasn't watching me.

😄

https://inaturalist.nz/observations/333398089

#ducks #birds #nz #Christchurch #ducklings

Behold, a feeding frenzy of Plum Sharks! Plum sharks AKA kererū, ...

2026-01-03T05:57:31Z

Behold, a feeding frenzy of Plum Sharks!

Plum sharks AKA kererū, the NZ wood pigeon.

Plums are in full fruit in Ōtautahi-Christchurch city, NZ, at the moment. I was on Valley Road today in Cashmere there were at least 11 kererū feasting in the plum trees up the side of the road.

I think plums are one of the big reasons that these birds venture down from the hills into the city at this time of year.

https://inaturalist.nz/observations/333255361

#birds #fruigivory #plums #Prunus #woodpigeon #pigeons #kererū #nz #Christchurch #nature #iNaturalist #iNaturalistNZ

NZ's flower expert Phil Garnock-Jones has an article in The ...

2025-12-25T07:44:29Z

NZ's flower expert Phil Garnock-Jones has an article in The Conversation on some of NZ's distinctive native plants that flower around Christmas time.

"Pōhutukawa flowers reflect strongly in both the red and ultraviolet wavelengths, but they absorb most of the blue and green wavelengths also found in sunlight. This is a pattern characteristic of bird-pollinated flowers, as is the fact that the flowers have no scent but produce a lot of nectar. Pōhutukawa flowers are also visited and pollinated by pekapeka, native short-tailed bats."

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/582692/most-of-nz-s-flowering-plants-grow-nowhere-else-and-christmas-falls-in-peak-blooming-season

#flowers #botany #nz #pohutukawa #TheConversation

Some birds sunbathe to look after their feathers. I've known ...

2025-12-05T20:21:04Z

In reply to nevent1q…v542
_________________________

Some birds sunbathe to look after their feathers.

I've known that it's good for driving out external parasites. I read now on the website of the British Trust for Ornithology that it also "helps oil from the 'preen gland' to spread across the feathers, keeping them healthy and in good condition."

https://www.bto.org/learn/about-birds/behaviour/preening-bathing

#birds #summer #sunbathing

Your body's black. It's hot and sunny. Surely you'd ...

2025-12-05T20:18:23Z

Your body's black. It's hot and sunny. Surely you'd go rest in the shade?

Not if you're a blackbird!

Yesterday I was in the Christchurch Botanic Gardens on a hot norwester afternoon, and lots of the resident blackbirds were out sunbathing.

https://inaturalist.nz/observations/329548946

#birds #hot #sunbathing #nz #blackbird #nature

Hello, I am a spider. Will you be my friend? 😀 I photographed ...

2025-12-01T08:20:42Z

Hello, I am a spider. Will you be my friend?

😀

I photographed this little guy on the weekend in Ōtautahi-Christchurch city, NZ. It's an Australian Bronze Hopper, Helpis minitabunda. Introduced accidentally to NZ, it now occurs throughout the North Island and upper to middle South Island.

This species is unusual amongst spiders in that the male is larger than the female.

https://inaturalist.nz/observations/329039712

#JumpingSpider #Salticidae #NZ #entomology #spiders #nature

I was reminded this week that trout in New Zealand rivers are ...

2025-11-30T06:22:22Z

I was reminded this week that trout in New Zealand rivers are introduced predators and that this is not good for some native fish.

I was up in the mountains at Craigieburn Forest Park on Thursday (scoping out a new university ecology field trip). One of our team thought she saw a trout in Cave Stream, and I got a quick photo.

We were with retired forester Nick Ledgard, who spent much of his career working here. He had seen native galaxid fish in the stream before and thought it was trout free, since trout would have difficulty getting up past the cave system that Cave Stream is known for.

Looking at my photo later, I unfortunately confirmed that it was a brown trout.

NZers love trout and trout management is an important way to advocate for cleaner rivers. Still, it is also important for native fish conservation (especially non-migratory galaxid fish) that some stretches of our rivers remain trout free.

http://inaturalist.nz/observations/328459396

#fish #nz #BiologicalInvasions #trout

Look! Cinnabar moth! Last summer I was surprised to find cinnabar ...

2025-11-29T22:01:34Z

Look! Cinnabar moth!

Last summer I was surprised to find cinnabar moth caterpillars feeding on the native pahokoraka, Senecio quadridentatus, in the middle of Christchurch city, NZ. Cinnabar moths were released to control the European pasture weed ragwort back in the 1940s.

I collected four caterpillars and fed them on pahokoraka leaves until they pupated on 16 January. I put them on some scrunched up newsprint in a plastic container and put that outside in a shaded area of our garden. Today, three adult moths emerged.

They're day-flying moths which retain the poisons of their host plants and advertise that to would-be predators with their bright colours,

https://inaturalist.nz/observations/328816568

#mothodon #moths #nz #Christchurch #BiologicalControl

Pink grasshopper! Pink!! ...

2025-11-18T07:18:29Z

Pink grasshopper! Pink!!

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/579236/rare-pink-grasshopper-discovered-during-annual-mackenzie-basin-survey

#grasshopper #entomology #insects #nz #nature

That reminds me of this photo that our daughter took recently of ...

2025-11-09T04:53:00Z

In reply to nevent1q…7unl
_________________________

That reminds me of this photo that our daughter took recently of our pet rabbit Firecracker and her best buddy Gimli Pig. They're both old pets now. Firecracker's sister has passed away, as has Gimli's brother, so it's pretty neat how they hang out together.

#DPReview has a new article about a jaw-dropppingly great photo ...

2025-11-01T20:20:01Z

#DPReview has a new article about a jaw-dropppingly great photo by Dan Zafra, in New Zealand, of the milky way, the comet SWAN, and aurora, *and* red sprites. It's insane!

The foreground looks to be the Ōmarama clay cliffs.

https://www.dpreview.com/articles/7526167980/a-photographer-s-journey-to-capture-one-of-nature-s-rarest-and-most-enchanting-displays

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTwM30VQjwg&t=2s

#nz #photography #astrophotography #redsprites

One of the fun things about working in an ecology department at a ...

2025-10-05T06:00:47Z

One of the fun things about working in an ecology department at a university is being surrounded by people who are *really, really good* at finding interesting critters.

On Thursday we took our annual first year ecology course field trip to Ōtamahua/Quail Island. That's a reserve in the middle of Lyttelton Harbour, where the pest mammals (except mice) have been removed and lots of trees have been planted. It was a great day.

Here's entomology Masters student George Gibbs, a genius at finding insects, with one of a pair of mating stick insects that he found.

And, here's Jennifer Gillette, our talented herpetologist, with two native geckos she found. (Don't pick up geckos. Jennifer has training and a permit from the Department of Conservation to handle these.)

#LincolnUniversityNZ #nature #insects #geckos #NZ #CanterburyNZ #QuailIsland #Ōtamahua

I had to stop on my bike ride to work this morning to shepherd ...

2025-10-03T09:22:57Z

I had to stop on my bike ride to work this morning to shepherd four paradise shelduck ducklings across a busy road. This was on the outskirts of Halswell in Ōtautahi-Christchurch, NZ.

Thankfully the cars stopped and waited. I'm not sure where Mum was. They seemed to be looking for her. I hope they found her as I didn't seen any of them when I passed on my return home.

Spring is definitely here.

#birds #ducks #ducklings #nz

How to unexpectedly acquire a chicken in 6 easy steps: 1) Go to a ...

2025-09-14T06:13:58Z

How to unexpectedly acquire a chicken in 6 easy steps:

1) Go to a remote forest reserve in the hills where you've never seen a chicken before. Find a chicken waiting for you there.

2) Offer the chicken food. (I had an old, unopened muesli bar in my backpack that did the trick.)

3) Feed the chicken some of the food by the car.

4) Slowly open the car door, and put some of the food inside the car. Provide a step up into the car for the chicken. (If the chicken is suspicious of the backpack you first use as a step, swap that out for something the chicken recognises, like a nearby brick.)

5) Wait patiently for the chicken to hop up into the car.

6) Close the car door. Drive home with the chicken.

😄

#chickens #NZ #ChickenRescue #ChristchurchPortHills #birds

We had a couple of interesting ecology and conservation seminars ...

2025-09-13T09:25:48Z

We had a couple of interesting ecology and conservation seminars this week at #LincolnUniversityNZ. The first, on Monday, was by Lou Sanson, ex-Director General of the NZ Department of Conservation.

Lou is now involved in the 30x30 initiative to protect 30% of Earth's land area and 30% of its marine area. 30x30 is an international effort, driven by 122 of the world's countries, which have all signed up to be part of the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People.

Lou gave a tour of some of the amazing projects happening around the world to protect the planet's wild places, as part of 30x30.

Is New Zealand part of this? No, of course not. We'd need a change of government for NZ to show leadership on conservation and environmental issues.

We do already have 30% of our land in reserves. Almost all of that is in the highest and wettest parts of the country, where English settlers couldn't farm. NZ hasn’t made a national park or a world heritage area in 25 years, and many of our reserves are struggling under pressure from pests and weeds. We have only 2% of our oceans protected.

We can do a lot better. As Lou concluded, “We’re seen as a world leader but we're not acting as a world leader at the moment.”

https://hacfornatureandpeople.org/

https://earthshotprize.org/winners-finalists/high-ambition-coalition-for-nature-and-people/

#nz #conservation #30x30 #nzpol #BiodiversityCrisis

So sad. 😔 Hugs from Mastodon NZ.

2025-09-05T20:54:45Z

In reply to nevent1q…7psr
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So sad. 😔 Hugs from Mastodon NZ.

Which reminds me of this from #DouglasAdams "It's easy to ...

2025-09-01T10:52:00Z

In reply to nevent1q…0hpk
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Which reminds me of this from #DouglasAdams

"It's easy to think that as a result of the extinction of the dodo we are now sadder and wiser, but there's a lot of evidence to suggest that we are merely sadder and better informed."

Douglas Adams, 1990, Last Chance to See

#MarkAvery reminds us that it’s 111 years today since the ...

2025-09-01T10:48:52Z

#MarkAvery reminds us that it’s 111 years today since the extinction of the last passenger pigeon, a species that just a few decades earlier was the commonest bird on the planet.

https://markavery.info/2025/09/01/passenger-pigeon-day-111-years-gone/

#birds #extinction #PassengerPigeon #PassengerPigeonDay

Thanks. Yes, that looks great too! I'll bookmark it now.

2025-08-27T02:01:43Z

In reply to nevent1q…0m4v
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Thanks. Yes, that looks great too! I'll bookmark it now.

This is a fantastic interview. I like the framing that it's ...

2025-08-27T00:39:27Z

In reply to nevent1q…7nx7
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This is a fantastic interview. I like the framing that it's in our cities, and especially our suburbs, where change is most needed if we're to get the world onto a sustainable track.

"Nations talk, cities act."

I had naively thought that wealthy corporate types would ...

2025-08-27T00:29:15Z

In reply to nevent1q…gna0
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I had naively thought that wealthy corporate types would recognise the *huge* financial benefits of not driving the world's habitable environments off a cliff. Yet, here we are with the cliff fast approaching.

I just posted an animated gif to #iNaturalist of the hoard of ...

2025-08-23T22:47:59Z

I just posted an animated gif to #iNaturalist of the hoard of silvereyes (tauhou) that visit our sugar water feeders every morning. So many little sugar junkies.

https://inaturalist.nz/observations/308562364

#Zosterops #silvereye #tauhou #nz #SugarWaterFeeder #birds

A black hole 36 billion times the mass of the Sun is ...

2025-08-16T10:52:15Z

In reply to nevent1q…ktzw
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A black hole 36 *billion* times the mass of the Sun is *mindbogglingly* big!

Here’s an excellent follow-up Q&A video with landscape ...

2025-08-16T10:02:02Z

In reply to nevent1q…t8fy
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Here’s an excellent follow-up Q&A video with landscape designer Carlos Campos Morera. There‘s a lot in here about gardening and knowing about plants, and putting the right plants in the right places, and planting the right plants for wildlife and wildfire prevention.

For example, if a plant has "super beefy jumbo roots" it’s going to come from a place with coarse chunky mineral rich soils.

Also, there’s wisdom: “The best thing you can do for your garden is look at it every day".

And, there’s gnome philosophy.

> Are gnomes cool? Can I use kitchsy stuff and still be respected by my neighors?

“Yes, gnomes are cool. You should ask yourself if a gnome is cool and if a gnome is cool to you then you should put a gnome, or many gnomes, or hundreds of gnomes, in your garden. I think the stuff that's "cool" in reality is the stuff that people are truly authentically into and it's like part of their personality and they don't give a shit whether their neighbour's respect them or not.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POf1VbaqhOk

#gardening #gardens #botany #horticulture #plants #gnomes

That image of Ulysses with Bluesky sirens and a stowaway is ...

2025-08-15T23:51:10Z

In reply to nevent1q…etqr
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That image of Ulysses with Bluesky sirens and a stowaway is spectacular. 😄

Here's an excellent video from Architectural Digest about the ...

2025-08-15T08:23:58Z

Here's an excellent video from Architectural Digest about the Geoponika greenhouse, a "plant orphanage" in LA of old plant collections. The plants are cared for by landscape designer Carlos Campos Morera. Among the collection is a female Welwitschia (an ancient Namibian gymnosperm) which is grown in stacked old sewer pipes to allow it to grow a deep tap root to a deep desert water table.

https://www.architecturaldigest.com/video/watch/unique-spaces-inside-a-hidden-la-greenhouse-full-of-the-worlds-rarest-plants

#botany #ArchitecturalDigest #plants #glasshouse #horticulture #Geoponika

Yes, it’s appalling. Here’s the coverage of this in the NZ ...

2025-08-13T08:38:48Z

In reply to nevent1q…sy0k
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Yes, it’s appalling. Here’s the coverage of this in the NZ media this morning.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/569833/embassy-staff-in-contact-with-kiwi-woman-detained-in-us-immigration-facility

Fascinating thread. There is so much unexpected life and ...

2025-08-12T08:45:50Z

In reply to nevent1q…ga8n
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Fascinating thread. There is so much unexpected life and celebration in these coffins.

Here's your friendly neighbourhood reminder that the New ...

2025-08-09T09:18:52Z

Here's your friendly neighbourhood reminder that the New Zealand tomtit, miromiro, has *bright orange feet*!

My feet feel so inadequate.

I saw this female up the Nina Valley in the North Canterbury mountains last weekend.

https://inaturalist.nz/observations/304917711

#nz #birds #Petroica

The rango pango reminds me of this excellent article on big blue ...

2025-08-07T09:10:39Z

In reply to nevent1q…2rzs
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The rango pango reminds me of this excellent article on big blue flies in New Zealand. It's "A Cure for the Blue Fly Blues" by Steve Kerr, NZ's fly expert from the Otago Museum.

NZ has quite a few similar looking large blue flies, like this Ngaro Tamumu , the Metallic Blue Hover Fly. Steve's article shows how to tell them all apart.

https://inaturalist.nz/projects/stayinathome-nz/journal/32727-stayinathome-a-cure-for-the-blue-fly-blues

#Diptera #flies #nz #iNaturalistNZ

Behold, Rango Pango! That's the Māori name for this elegant ...

2025-08-07T08:35:52Z

Behold, Rango Pango!

That's the Māori name for this elegant native New Zealand blowfly. The fly is mostly black with a big shiny blue abdomen.

This rango pango landed on a student during our weekend field trip up in the North Canterbury mountains. She (the student) was kind enough to stay still while I photographed it.

Unlike most blowflies, rango pango maggots can grow up on rotting plant material as well as animal carcasses. The adult flies are pollinators of many plants.

This is the third observation on iNat of this species from the North Canterbury Southern Alps.

https://inaturalist.nz/observations/304190384

#flies #Diptera #NZ #Calliphora #Calliphoridae #blowflies #iNaturalist #insects

"Feel Inside (and stuff like that)" by Flight of the ...

2025-08-01T08:55:43Z

"Feel Inside (and stuff like that)" by Flight of the Conchords.

I love this. Flight of the Conchords took suggested lyrics from children and wrapped them into a song and had a group of NZ musicians perform it for charity.

Here's the official Cure Kids long version. (The song is at the end of the video.)

"We all just wanna' be bubbles."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py_30jZGUYk

#JukeboxFridayNight
#SongsToMakeUsSmile

Good luck with that, NACT. Sheesh. Last night the current NZ ...

2025-07-31T19:59:46Z

Good luck with that, NACT. Sheesh.

Last night the current NZ government passed legislation repealing the previous government’s ban on offshore oil and gas exploration. This morning’s headline news on #RNZ has the government publicly pleading with opposition parties not to reverse this when they’re back in power.

NZ’s opposition parties understand that climate change is real, it’s going to be catastrophic, and burning fossil fuels is to blame.

This bit also seems relevant: “Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade assessed that reversing the 2018 ban would likely be inconsistent with the obligations in several of New Zealand's free-trade agreements.”

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/568623/coalition-parties-call-for-opposition-not-to-re-ban-oil-and-gas-exploration

#nzpol #ClimateChange

Over here in New Zealand, Himalayan balsam is still near the ...

2025-07-26T06:00:29Z

In reply to nevent1q…aejx
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Over here in New Zealand, Himalayan balsam is still near the beginning of its march through our wetlands and streams. It's had a few centuries head start in the UK. I think in NZ we should be taking it far more seriously than we are.

https://inaturalist.nz/observations?place_id=6803&subview=map&taxon_id=47892&verifiable=any

#weeds

#ArteConcert is so amazing! I don't remember who on Mastodon ...

2025-07-12T09:46:28Z

#ArteConcert is so amazing! I don't remember who on Mastodon first pointed me to it but it's *so good*. Thanks to whoever you are.

If you don't know it, Arte is a a European public service channel and Arte Concert is their live music. The live concert performances are top quality and it's all free to watch, with *no ads* (thanks EU!).

This evening I've been watching a jazz concert by Hiromi's Sonicwonder. Earlier in the week I watched Moderat live at the Grand Palais in Paris. I've discovered fantastic African blues musician Fatoumata Diawara and Cuban funk musician Cimafunk and singer song-writer Asaf Avidan. There's everything from metal to electronic to jazz to classical.

While a lot of the internet has been turning to ad-filled spyware goop, Arte Concert is a wonderful exception.

This is me feeling grateful.

https://www.arte.tv/en/arte-concert/

#music #concerts

That is excellent. I like that he includes patience and ...

2025-07-12T07:48:50Z

In reply to nevent1q…ucy3
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That is excellent. I like that he includes patience and experimentation in his list of essential skills for macro photography.

I’m now following Trey on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/193306436@N06/

Here's a way to explore something that is far out. Way far ...

2025-06-13T08:13:27Z

Here's a way to explore something that is far out. *Way* far out!

I've been zooming in and exploring the interactive web viewer for the James Webb telescope's new deep field view. According to Anton Petrov's new video on this, there's about 800,000 galaxies(!) in this view, which is a tiny fraction of the whole night sky.

Our universe is insanely HUGE!

It's also incredible that everyone can explore these massive images on our browsers. Thanks to the astonomers that made this possible.

https://cosmos2025.iap.fr/fitsmap.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jId8sqwZQpQ

#astronomy #jwst #galaxies

I'm pleased to report that I have a "senile wart" ...

2025-06-12T06:05:18Z

I'm pleased to report that I have a "senile wart" (otherwise known as seborrhoeic keratosis). I'd noticed a bumpy brown spot on my chest growing fast over the past few weeks. I just got back from a molecheck appointment and am relieved that it's nothing nefarious. Still, let this be a friendly neighborhood reminder to you all to get a regular mole check, especially if you're like me and grew up on the beach in NZ before sunscreen was a big thing.